Question about catchment areas

[Soverytired4]

Hello, just wondering if all you knowledgable people can answer a query I have about catchment areas. I'm sure it probably varies from council to council but where I live we are out of catchment for our preferred school but distance wise we are nearer to the school than some streets that are in catchment. My son is currently number 5 on a reserve list for Year 1. We are Criterion 4: out of catchment with a sibling in the school. There is another criterion 4 but nearer than us and the other 3 are criterion 3: in catchment. What puzzles me is that the council will use distance to school to help order those on the reserve list but it's quite possible that those on the reserve list in catchment are actually further away than us! Hope I'm making sense here. Is it possible to query catchment areas? We have recently moved to a new build property that would not have been built when the catchment was decided. Also, there are more new builds planned which is going to be a strain on the local schools. Is it likely the council have a plan on how to deal with this? Any help and advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!

if there is a catchment, and the criteria are as you say, then in catchment will get preference regardless of distance.
No you can't query/change that, it was part if the criteria when you applied, and hasn't changed.

So if you live 100m away, but someone in catchment lives 1 km away, they will get priority, as they are in catchment.
You also have sibling priority, so THAT may put you above the other person on the list, but it will be strictly according to the criteria listed.
The order of the reserve list will be in the order of the criteria.

It sounds like:
siblings in catchment
others in catchment
siblings out of catchment
others out of catchment

ALL the people in each category have priority over ALL the people in the category below it. Distance is used to distinguish between 2 people in same category.

The catchment may be changed to accommodate the new build - or not. That is up to the school and council.

We had this as well, when we applied for DD1 3 years ago. Our closest school is 300 metres from home, on the same site as her nursery, so it was quite familiar to her. We were shocked to discover that our catchment school was the one over a km in the other direction! We were lucky enough to get her the place we wanted, but it was an anxious time.

Do you know how much movement there was last year on the waiting lists? Fingers crossed for you.

Thanks all for your replies. Fingers crossed it's not too long a wait.

This is the situation in our school. Lots of out of catchKent siblings hAve this stress every year but most get in by xmas.

One good thing we see though is that those who lost out who live in the catchment but are without siblings, they will often accept their new school and start proceedings there (taster sessions etc) and don't usually take up a later offer from their first preference. Usually it's only sibling families that hold out long term. (Obviously depends on the availability of good schools).

The new build estate has presumably been put into the catchment area of another school - one you do not want. This can happen if the nearest school is always full but a slightly further away one is never full. This is often the case for new build houses and has definitely happened in my local small town. It is expensive to increase the size of a full school whilst another one has spaces. It is always worth checking catchment areas before you buy.

Our area is exactly the same - due to the estate I live on having lots of empty school places 7 yrs ago (60s estate with ageing population), the catchments were redrawn to push more children to the school with low numbers.

Our house sits between 3 schools, all less than 1 mile away. 6 houses up the road and we would be in the catchment of the school my DS goes to which is 1/3 mile away. We were lucky to get him in last year. 20 houses the other way and we would be in the catchment of a school 1/3 mile in the other direction. Our house though, is in the catchment of the 3rd school which is just over 1/2 mile away. It is confusing - estate agents advertise houses round here as being in certain school's areas but you have to check very carefully.

I don't think you challenge the areas once the admissions have been made - it's something that should have been queried before hand I guess.

I live within 1.5 miles of 3 schools I am not in catchment for, my catchment school is 4 miles in the other direction - it makes no sense! (we don't go to the catchment school!)